UN-led peace talks on Yemen collapse in Geneva

Geneva, Sep 8 (IANS) After two days of delay due to the absence of the Houthi delegation, one of the major warring parties in the conflict in Yemen, the new round of UN-led peace talks collapsed on Saturday.

The UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths told a press conference here that the world body failed to get the Houthi delegation to the talks, Xinhua news agency reported.

Stressing that the UN will sooner or later bring the parties together, Griffiths said the Houthi delegation was actually keen to travel to Geneva for the peace talks, and that he doesn’t take this as a “fundamental blockage” in the political process.

“They would have liked to get here. We didn’t make conditions sufficiently correct to get them here,” Griffiths said, adding that it was “too early to say when the next round of consultations will take place”.

However, he did not go into details on why the Houthis did not show up.

Media reports from Yemeni capital Sana’a said that the Houthis will not join peace talks in Geneva until their minute conditions were met, while another report said the Houthi delegation was stranded in Sana’a because the Saudi-led coalition, which controls the airspace, had not given their permission to fly.

“The consultation process has started. We had three days of fruitful discussions with the delegation of the government of Yemen as planned and the consultations will continue in Muscat and Sana’a,” the UN envoy said, adding that he will travel to the region in the coming days.